Max Anstie Wins 250SX East Opener In Tampa!

Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing’s Max Anstie was victorious at the season opener in Tampa. The Brit had a perfect day, qualifying first, winning his heat race and putting himself on the top step of the podium in the main event. The win was also Anstie’s third in his career. The #31 will have the red plate heading into Detroit.

Teammate Pierce Brown mad the pass on Ansite early in the main event for the lead, but his night ended abruptly with a violent crash in the whoops, resulting in a red flag. At this moment in time, Brown’s injury status is unknown.

Daxton Bennick started his sophomore supercross season with a bang, finishing second overall on the night. After one singular podium last season (at the opening round also), Bennick looks to build on this podium and use this momentum to consistently be in podium contention each weekend. There should certainly be some confidence fuelling him heading into the next round, after beating a long list of title contenders.

After confirming this week, he had torn his ACL in a practice crash leading up to Tampa, Cameron McAdoo showed true toughness finishing in third place. With the injury news lowering outsiders’ expectations for this weekend and going forward, it is fair to say he and the whole Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawaski team should be delighted with the podium, especially in the

given circumstances. Seth Hammaker had a solid night finishing in fourth place. Levi Kitchen had a not-so-great night, a poor start in the main and then a crash in the sand left Kitchen to salvage a ninth.

Defending champion Tom Vialle finished in fifth place. The Frenchman had his struggles throughout the day in the whoops, and on a night where many were taken out by the whoops, a fifth is a valiant effort to begin his pursuit of defending his title.

The 2024 250SX west champ had a disastrous start to his season. Early in the main event, RJ Hampshire jumped onto a tuff block and could not untangle it from his machine. Wild events are par for the course for RJ, and he finished Eighteenth on the night.

Cullin Park tied his career best seventh in Tampa. Extremely impressive for the Phoenix Racing Honda rider to be well within the top ten, at the opening round in this stacked field. Park had good speed in qualifying as well, finishing in ninth above a handful of factory riders. Very impressive.

Carson Mumford returned to racing after his leg break in Texas and started his season off well in tenth.

Shout out to Henry Miller (eleventh), Gage Linville (twelfth), Hardy Munoz (thirteenth), Lance Kobusch (fifteenth), Luke Neese (fifteenth), Trevor Colip (sixteenth) for their solid finishes in the main event. A lot of these guys would have been happy to purely qualify for the main event alone with the current crop of riders.

With this class, the results sheet could be completely different as we leave Detroit, and that is what makes this 250SX east championship so exciting. Who are your podium picks for round two?

- Edward Heather (@edward_heather on Instagram)